A life in a photobooth.

The Actors’ Agency Part 9

Enlargements of these photobooth photos are at the bottom of this post.

Here is another Parisian actor’s file card from, the 50s or 60s, for your perusal. I have not been able to find Gisele in any online files, so maybe she had no success, despite her film star style and beauty? She seems to know how to pose masterfully for the camera. Perhaps she was looking for modelling work and was already experienced in the field? The gentleman from whom I bought this series of cards was unsure of the exact extent of the agency’s remit, so it is possible she had a thriving, though anonymous career as a model?

When I purchased this card, I was unable to work out what was going on around Gisele’s ear in the second image. Now, being able to enlarge it, I can see that what might have been a small spray of tiny flowers, is actually an ingeniously designed earring. It has bead-tipped filaments that radiate, almost invisibly, out of the central cluster clipped to her lobe. A lovely effect on her dark hair, and one I have never seen before.

In the same photo, there is something of Jackie Kennedy in Gisele’s hair, makeup and clothes. Given Kennedy’s French connections, one may wonder if there is more in Jackie’s style that was fashionably Parisian, than there is in Gisele being fashionably American. Either way, she has the exemplary poise and grace of a fashion icon.

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47 comments

gluepot said: February 24, 20173:10 PM

I found the marriage of Gisele M Salvador to Ronald E Kahn in Dade County, Florida in February 1959 (Ancestry.com). It could be her.

Thanks Gluepot. I suppose it could be her, but remember she was living in and looking for work in Paris around that time. Having said that, there is no reason she couldn’t have married an American in his home town and then moved with him back to France, or had a very short marriage, or sent these photos to the agency before she was in love with an American.

There is a tree for this family on Ancestry.com too. Ronald Elwin Kahn (1941-1977) married Gisele in 1959 at Alachua, Florida, and they had at least three children. The eldest son appears to have died there last year, so perhaps you ended purchasing it from the deceased estate via eBay.
Regards, Brett

Okay, I have more information which suggests that it could well be the subject of your photo. An entry in the US Social Security and Claims Index shows a Giselle/Gisele Marcelle Kahn, who was born 26 Feb 1929 in Paris, France, daughter of Jose Salvador and Marcelle F Perrin.
She must be the same person who married Ronald E Kahn in Florida in Feb 1959.
It appears she was married a few times, as the SS Index shows the following:
Oct 1959 – Name listed as GISELLE MARCELLE KAHN
Feb 1968 – Name listed as GISELLE MALLORY
31 Mar 1989 – Name listed as GISELE POLLACK
She became a naturalized US citizen on 9 Jan 1967 in New York.
She died on 8 May 2003 in Suffolk, New York

Your site is wonderful. You have almost written an encyclopaedia! I feel honoured you have spent so much time doing research for me. I will do another post about Gisele in the coming week. Thanks again, Brett.

Interesting observation, Richard. I see it as the typical vacant expression of a model or actor posing in order to be their own job advertisement. The smiles are manufactured, so the eyes are not as engaged as they would be if genuinely responding to something that pleases them.

I will do another post to include all his amazing information. Need to get over a bit of a health dip first. Hopefully the new post will show up the new name details in Google and other search engines. I don’t think comments get registered, but I could be wrong.

I just read your posts (and some comments too)..very interesting. mostly that so many people are so passionate about it 🙂 I like to look at the old photos too (ok, at any lol) bcz as one indian poet said: the photos are you, dream-like, wearing the heart on your face.

Yeah, I liked the girl with a doll a lot. What if she never got the doll..what if it was only for the picture. Hm Its actually an idea. I’ll go write it down..haha If I’ll write about it some day, then I’ll mention you 🙂 #linktoyou